New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-09-23
AN UNHAPPY PRINCESS.
THE SISTER OF FREDERICK THE GREAT.

The SISTER OF FhEDEhiOh i"1 ~
MEMOIRS OF wILHELMNE, MARGARINE OF
DAiREOTH. Translated and edited by Her h ;,
Pr,prsss Of Great Britain and ireland with portrait
I2mo pp ASA. harper Prothers.
The memoirs of the Margarine of Baireuth have
ione been familiar to the readers OF Carlyles Life
AZ Frederick the Great" The historian found them
the most important of the documents relating to
the early part of his hsro's career, and he was
charmed by their lucidity, frankness and conscen-
ftousness The Princess Wilhelmine, OF course,
wrote in much obscurity. 1t was impossible for her
tn divine the motives of many of the most lmpor-
tant people at her fathers court and her views OK
historical events and diplomatic proceedings are
often so coored by personal bias that witnout ooi
receives in the shape of contemporary chron'0'o''
written from broader point OF view, ner conU'u
tions and interpretations would be mlsleaoine DuS
there can be no doubt as to the reai''Y VI VIZ
troubles which filled her life, ana tue rooo,u "
these is.pitiful She and indeed all her Ianiiy'
80. soor;6csa IN the exicencies of conflicting am
,;t,ons aud state politics No doubt the tempera-
,ne,ta, defects of her father, Frederick Wl'liai'
and her mother. Sophie Dorothea, counted Tor much
in the general outcome. But the inherited irii'a-
bry of the King and Queen was necessarily pio
voked and deliberately stimulated by tfe Aus,i",
Ministers whose duty at Berlin was to ferinent III
feeling between Prussia and England. and' aoov0
oll. Illustrate the royal schemes for douoie Ahsi-
can alliance In this conflict the hearts OF the crown
Prince and the Processes were ruthiessiy cru'"'"
their incipations or affections were systematicany
ignored and defed Never did the most lnhameo
;maonotion conceive in fiction the figure Oh q more
hrutal,v tyranpical father of more cruel motnef'
than the actual facts show Whelmiue's parents 10
have been. The poor Princess writes sadiy MY
mother never loved her children. she oniy oaiou
for them as they could help her ambition lhat ~
terrible sentence for one OF the tenderest' "os'
loving and dutiful of daughters to nave wri''e"'
Int IL was forced from her by an experience 81
terrible. so convincing. that only madness couiu
have avoided the revelation. It's, lndeeu "'ru "
determine whether the gross brutality OF the hng
or the cold unkindness of the Queen was the more
difficu,t to endure. Wllhemine had to bear both'
and IL is not surprising that she should have almost
welcomed marriage with man OF whom she knew
scarce anything, as a means OF escape from ZIG
which deserves literally to be described as internal
The coarse. narrow minded, One-ideaed king
saor;6ced every interest to that of his army. he
governed despoticaly. and most despotcaliy IN
his own family. There were no bounds 10 inc
violence he was capable of. On one occasion nc
actually tried to murder the Crown frihce anu
vould have succeeded had not his hands been held.
Often he struck and beat the future conqueror
More than once he felled him to the hoor But
This he was not ashamed to do with his daughter
also and as for throwing plates and dishes at their
heads it seems to have been at one time so frequent
that thew did not think much of it. He does not
anpear to have beaten the Queen, but she was
MORALLY afraid of his temper, and this notwitn-
standing the fact that most OF her
time and energy were devoted 10
thwarting his plans aud substituting
her own for them. The great object was to marry
Wilhelmine TO the Prince of Wales and the crown
Prince to an English Princess The King evidently
realized the difficulties more clearly than the
Queen, and often, too, his pride became offended at
the dilatory course of the English Court. where
upon he would fly into rage and swear that Will
helmine should forthwith marry some petty Ger
man princeiing Then the Queen was III consterna-
top and flew to her daughter to cOnjure her not to
WELD The King on the other hand would storm
and swear at her and threaten the direst punish
ment il she did not accept the new suitor 80, De-
tween father and mother the poor thing who was
for her misfortune unusually sensitive and tender
hearted was plucked first this way and then that
and was only sure Tat whichever parent she
obeyed she would be reviled and attacked by the
other.
This for years, was the tenor OF her existence.
To complete the picture Of court life the reader may
imagine nenage so parsimonious that every body
was half-starved, allowances so.begearly that the
Queen and Processes could hardly keep themselves
decenty clothed a system Of espionage so complete
that the Wallets and chambermaids were all IN the
pay of the King some of the corrupt and hostile
ministers; and court composed of vicious STUPID
arrogant and selfish persons who aternaed be-
tween slayish sycophancy and incredible insolence
as the currents of royal temper shifted from gra-
cousness to frantic ruianism. Carlyle has painted
the portrait of the royal brute III mperishable col
ors. He was so detestabe and intoleTabls
hot ha
sion OF Wilhemine to his abominabe i'll treatment
seems hard to understand She Sc ems to have felt
her mothers unkindness far more than her fathers
though she was thoroughly afraid of the King. The
barbarous usage of the Crown Prince by the latter
is one of the Prncesss most frequent subjects. The
half-mad old monarch used to beat his heir pitt
lessly and then taunt him by declaring that If his
father had used him so he would have run away.
When at last Frederick's patience was worn out,
And he really did make up his mind to fly and when
the purpose was betrayed by some of the sneaking
spies always at hand, the King forgot what he had
advised his victim to do. and for sending him
TO the scaffold. He did execute poor Katt, whose
only crime was that he had known the intention
of the Crown Prince and had not betrayed him;
and with internal malice the young man was de-
eapitated under the windows of the prison where
the Prince was immured, and he was dragged to tho
easement and compelled to look on at the perpetra
tion of the butchery. That Frederick the Great
did not love his father is certain. and he would have
been more than mortal had he doDeso. He made
no pretence of at his DEATH and 1t is hardly
TO be credited that any human being experienced
any other feeling than one of relief hen tho fierce
and malignant old tyrant passed away.
In, marrying the hereditary Prince of Baireuth
Wihelmine thought she would at least escape the
hideous life of the Berlin Court. but she found
that she had gained little by the exchange The
Margrave of Baireuth, her husbands father, was
almost as bad in his way as the King Of Prussia,
aad though the hereditary Prince Is described as
smiable and virtuous he could not protect his wife
against her father-n-law, and he appears in the
memoirs as somewhat coloress aud feeble person.
age This marriage. too turned the Queen against
Wilhelmine permanently. 1t was the dcath-blow
70 her hopes of English alliance, and though the
subsequent union of the Crown Prince with the
and 4c all